Nationwide Bans The Poor From Private Renting

“The Mortgage Works, a subsidiary of Nationwide Building Society, has removed the exclusion of tenants on benefits and Local Authority tenants from its Buy-to-Let terms and conditions. This follows concerns raised by its customers.

“The clarification of the terms and conditions, which took place last December, brought The Mortgage Works into line with several other Buy-to-Let lenders. This will now be removed.”

In a shocking, and possibly illegal decision, one of Britain’s biggest buy-to-let mortgage lenders is to ban landlords from accepting tenants on Local Housing Allowance.

This nasty little move will mean unemployed, disabled people, many pensioners and people on low wages will be locked out of a large sector of the private rental market. This comes at a time when homelessness is soaring and the bedroom tax is set to force hundreds of thousands of people out of local authority housing and into the private sector.

Nationwide’s subsidiary, The Mortgage Works, are one of the largest mortgages providers for the buy-to-let vermin who have caused soaring rents and house prices. The company say: “Previously, lending to landlords with local authority tenants was not explicitly referenced in TMW’s lending criteria. Our re-issued terms and conditions make it explicit that local authority tenants are not acceptable.”

By local authority tenants they actually mean Housing Benefit tenants. Many tenants on Housing Benefits are working, however should they lose their job, become disabled or fall ill, then they may now face homelessness as their landlords will have no choice but to evict.

In truth it is none of a landlord’s fucking business, or his banks, whether tenants are on benefits or not and there is no requirement to tell them. This will sadly be of cold comfort to many tenants however, who all too often live in fear of eviction on the whims of the landlord. Most tenants can be thrown out of their home for any reason or none with just two months notice.

Nationwide’s decision comes on the back of savage cuts to Housing Benefits which have already made much of the South East of England unaffordable for people on low incomes. The growing homelessness epidemic in the South is soon to be matched by mass homelessness in Northern England, Scotland and Wales as the bedroom tax begins to bite.

On top of this will come the drip drip effect of George Osborne’s decision to cap annual Housing Benefit rises at 1%, despite a soaring rental market. And in April this year the benefit cap begin to kick in which will force thousands of people out of London or onto the streets.

Already the cuts have led to local councils placing homeless families in hotels which can cost almost £3000 a week. People’s lives are being torn apart and the Housing Benefit bill is still rising.

No DSS has long been a common sign on the windows of letting agents. Some landlords say they will not even take working tenants on DLA, effectively banning disabled people from their housing. This, along with punitive deposits, credit and reference checks, mean accessing private sector housing is more difficult than ever before for those on low incomes.

At present people with resident children, or those disabled or unwell enough to convince their council they are officially ‘vulnerable’, are legally able to gain some help should they become homeless. Increasingly that means B&Bs as the number of people presenting as homeless rockets.

Yet landlords, mortgage lenders and property speculators are making millions as they exploit the soaring demand for housing. In many parts of the UK, even a so called ‘living wage’ is not enough to pay the rent. If Nationwide’s greedy demand is repeated by other lenders and landlords then it will mean disabled, sick, unemployed or low waged workers are effectively barred from housing in the UK. You can tell the recession profiteers what you think of that on twitter @AskNationwide or at: http://www.facebook.com/NationwideBuildingSociety

182 responses to “Nationwide Bans The Poor From Private Renting”

its not just the nationwide its almost all of them …do not want to rent to benefit scrounging scum..
I am about to be evicted cos the private landlord wants his house back and NOONE will rent me a house as I am a full time carer two complex needs kids and I recieve …wait for it HOUSING BENEFIT!! not only will they not rent to me they wont even let me view

Well you shouldn’t be a benefit scrounging scum..Get a job you looser and keep your legs shut. See the way our lovely government has got us? My god we truely do hate everyone don’t we, at least we can pray for a quick death, oh wait retirement will be 75 by the time we get there. I don’t have kids at the age of 40 but i guess i’m selfish to society, to me i’m grateful i never had kids because to be honest society doesn’t deserve them and i have spared them the hatered from society. Yes i too have worked all my life, fuck society, fuck all and go and die.

@Bob, what a nasty embittered little piss poor excuse for a man you. Glad there aren’t too many people out there with your disgusting and hateful mindset. You are just typical of the self-entitled, sad and ineffectual low-lives who just want to blame the easy targets for your own lack of success.

Actually i was being ironic? at the way society/governments have gotten us, prehaps my anger has caused my words to come across as an attack when in fact i was trying to highlight the way society is trying to get us to think. My experiences are i live in a 2 bed flat, have worked most of my life, have no children, am currently unemployed looking for work, can’t afford the upcoming bedroom tax and exspected just to move out of my area that i’ve lived in for 38 years.

Mothers, carers, voluntary workers etc are all worthless then eh. If it wasn’t for some poor woman you’d not be here writing such shit. Nasty attitude, no empathy or compassion. The love of money does appear to be the root of all evil.

I think the poster was being sarcastic with the ‘keeping your legs closed’ comments etc. He was pointing out just how the government and media rhetoric over scroungers and skivers will have affected many people in Britain who have bought into it. The comments were probably what many of those people would make, not realising that the government are pulling the wool over their eyes for their own agendas to be filled.

Bob – I understood your ironic comment. This is the way the government and media are training people to think. Please hold on to your sense of humour – I hope it will help you in the hard times which are coming to many of us. Good luck.

A new churches’ report shows how evidence and statistics have been misused, misrepresented and manipulated to create untruths that stigmatise poor people, welfare recipients and those in receipt of benefits.

Exactly, it is BUY-TO-LET VERMIN who are responsible for the increase in the Housing Benefit bill, and now they have filled their boots they want to lock-out those from whose misery and exploitation they have lined their velvet pockets!! FUCK BUY-TO-LET SCUMLORDS AND THEIR FUCKING “PORTFOLIOS” !! PURE AND UTTER CUNTS THE LOT OF THEM!!

It should be a condition of the grants and interest free loans, tax allowances that landlords/developers can not discriminate in this way. Many on HB etc are working tax paying people, funding these sharks.

If only someone would have the guts to introduce regulation of the private Rented sector…as sector by the way where HB recipients are only allowed to live in the bottom 30% of the properties, have had £10pw cut from their HB and have short term tenancies. The link to average rents has now been removed with only a 1% increase in LHA while rents soar.

if the germans can do why cant we…… rent capping… this simple solution would solve so many problems in one swoop, but the political classes wont do it, they say it will be to complicated,,, what, as complicated as a top down reorganisation of the nhs, education and benifits system..

Some people also had “lifetime” awards of DLA, turns out they now didn’t after all have “lifetime” awards!!!…..Anything is as the government of the day say’s it is.

Anyway, if as I think it is ?, we may all find in the not too distance future that the property market goes into total collapse, all the tory yuppies that went out and bought more then one property in order to rent them out and make their fortunes will find themselves with massive debt problems after all their properties have been repossessed. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of people…

It’s ridiculous how much of a hammering the poor are getting. Cameron argues for keeping bankers’ bonuses yet is perfectly fine to see the poor destitute, starving and homeless. The banks know that many people aren’t going to be able to afford rent soon, because of the cuts, which is why they’re seen as a risk. Problems caused by bankers are being fixed (?) by punishing the poor.

You have to remember that the banks and government are hand in hand. The banks do what the government say and the government does what the banks want. I am honestly not sure what the government hopes to achieve by making thousands homeless, however, it will not be saving money because of the law that says that unless you are intentionally homeless, i.e. you left a property voluntarily, the council have to house you and right now it’s costing the councils and therefore the taxpayer around £3,000 per week to put a family up in a bed and breakfast or a hotel.

I am truly not sure how this is helping the budget deficit, it’s quite obviously going to have the opposite effect, I suspect that the government is doing this solely because they know they will not get voted in next time and they are trying to leave as much of a mess for the incoming government as they can manage in two years, and they can do a lot of damage in that time. It might be time for the electorate to put in a vote of no confidence in the government.

Taking the piss yes, but it was my thoughts exactly, as Bobchewie calls them, the Poverty Pimps like Stonham Home who will temporarily put a roof over the head of the victims for the princely sum of £300 per head per week, plus service charge of £27, nice work if you can get it

The land/properties in the centre of London (& other cities?) are worth a great deal in cash terms – so to have unsightly poor people living there isn’t the most ‘cost-effective’?

There’s someone going to suggest on Radio 4’s Any Questions later today that what amounts to ethnic cleansing is now taking place – I believe he is Muslim but didn’t catch who he is. It’s wider than that though – vulnerable people removed from close family/support networks & dropped down miles away to ‘manage’ without (& it’s not a surprise to hear that all ‘reforms’ combined could well result in ethnic cleansing, whether by design or just as a side-effect).

Big Bill’s right. Soon they’ll be whingeing about how “difficult” it is to find tenants! And demanding “something must be done” when they find people sleeping in their doorways and using them as toilets, because they’ve got nowhere else to go.

What does it matter where the bloody money comes from as long as the rent’s paid. This is outrageous, what next, banning the poor or benefit claimants from having bank accounts? Can see that one coming. The government ( I use that term loosely) & their money men cronies wont be satisfied till they ground us all to dust.

They are all ready pushing heavily to introduce paid for standard bank accounts (at the moment monthly charges are being back doored by introducing charges if you don’t put enough in a month, like my son who is on min wage will have to pay because he has a payment card attached for internet payments) after that it will be a charge for no frills accounts, then charges for basic accounts.

Is this anything to do with Housing benefits being lumped in with other benefits as “Universal credit”? When tenants are responsible for paying their rent to their landlord instead of direct payments, a lot will be tempted to use money for housing on something else (birthdays, christmas, drugs, alcohol…). If I was a landlord, Id be worried as to whether I was going to get my rent. Direct payment ensures that the landlord gets paid and people get to keep a roof over their head. Simple. But not any more

I imagine that the Universal Credit system has a lot to do with it. However, as I understand it tenants may still be given the option of having it paid direct to the landlord. Don’t quote me on this though, it might just be something I picked up in passing from one of the many articles I have read on this subject.

There is no option of paying it directly… unless you start to show a bad payment history, they will then be paid direct till you’re up to date, then revert to payment to the individual and the whole mess starts again.

With the Bedroom tax, council tax tax, and 1% uprating the lenders are rightly scared of landlords not recieving payment, people will have a choice not to pay the CT payment that they didn’t have to pay previously which will incur legal penalties including incarceration, or not pay the rent which will incur private prosecutions which will up to a point cost way more than can be covered or paid back so landlaords will probably in the whole just issue eviction notices, keep the deposit, and be done with it and never take on someone on any kind of benefit again….

Potentially (baring london/SE/some areas of other major cities) meaning the properties may sit empty for some time exposing the lender to greater risk of default.

Ah, thanks for that clarification. I honestly wasn’t sure. I am actually a pensioner who has a housing association tenancy and although I am on a military pension, I still have to have housing benefit because my pension isn’t very large. I normally ask the council to send it straight to the landlord, but it looks, from what you are saying, as though it will come directly into my bank account, which is fine. I am certainly not going to spend it on booze and drugs 😛 I am also currently exempt from the bedroom tax, although it wouldn’t apply to me anyway because my eldest son who works lives with me and occupies the other bedroom of a two bedroomed property.

The council tax I am still not sure about.

However I do agree that this is going to cause major problems for everyone concerned, with the exception of the government! I can see that the lenders are trying to protect themselves, but at the end of the day, this government are infringing the human rights of their electorate, not that they particularly seem to care.

Part of what put me in the nuthouse last year was the worry of getting the kids to school, benefits cut to 50 per week after being found fit to work, when it was costing 70 to get the kids to school and keep em fed.

I’m not surprised. And that’s even if they don’t drink/take any drugs!

When my brother reached aged about 15 I remember him coming in from school and (sometimes) eating the best part of a loaf of bread (as toast) before tea. He was really tall, even then, and was obviously ‘growing/leading an active life’ etc – & had ‘hollow legs’. It was a family joke but it wouldn’t be a joke for anyone trying to live on today’s benefit money (or lack thereof) … – then if rent money is paid direct to people’s accounts the so-called ‘temptations’ will just become impossible to avoid.

@OBI WELL NATIONWIDE BACKED DOWN AFTER PUBLIC PRESSURE..BUT ITS ALL GETS CONFUSING WORDPRESS NEEDS SORTING OUT…I AM STIL CHECKING OUT THE LITCHFIELD THING AS SOMEOMNE ELSE POUT IN FOI REQUEST ON ANOTHER DWP BOD THAT HAS CLOSE LINKS TO PRIVATE OUTFITS EG CAPITA..
FFS SAKE HOBAN GAVE A SPECCH CALLED THE CAPITA SPEECH IT WAS ON DWP FFS…

Trouble with direct payment to landlords, is in the event of a fraudulent claim. Who do you reckon the government comes after for their money back in such a circumstance? Common Law eviction proceedings for tenants negligent of their responsibilities are comparatively cheap and simple.

They are doing this on purpose, cant you see it, David Icke was right all along, this is all to create chaos so they can bring in their Fascist Police state.

You can bet Tents and camping equipment sale’s go through the roof this year.

A vote of no confidence needs to be done sooner rather than later and when their out they should be striped of all ill gotten assets and kicked into the gutter where they so carefree are about to put millions of people.

Everyone should pull their Nationwide accounts and invest them in Credit Unions.

Any account holders who are disgusted just need to give them the Northern Rock treatment. Simply close all accounts immediately, insist on cash withdrawals. If you have a property for let use another agent. Simple.

I’m absolutely disgusted at Nationwide and the general current trend to stigmatise those on benefits. I have commented on Nationwide’s facebook page that I am closing my account with them& putting in an official complaint. It’s one very small thing we can do to let them know we won’t stand by and allow it. Their profits may be healthy but they are morally bankrupt!

did you know that from april tenants of social housing and those that rent through an agent their payment record will apear on credit reference agencies files. so if you have problems paying the rent it will show whenever a tenant goes for a new tenancy.

Apparently, a well-known (& supposedly friendly) high street bank is about to start asking any customers who have a debt relief order – which is not the same as being bankrupt but a less extreme way of enabling debts to be written off below a certain amount – if they would kindly close their account.

Sorry I was making the tea!! Just read & replied to your earlier post. The one I’m talking about (above) is a.n.other bank though, not Nationwide – they’re about to carry out their own form of discrimination against the less well-off (so I’ve heard).

@shirleynott…that does not surprise me..if one starts it then the others join in…btw i am still following this litchfield thing..it seems he is connected to unum as well as atos via fom also ex director of fom…also gunnyon dwp bod is connected to fom as well..someone pout in an FOI request about gunyon links to fom amd capita citing conflict of interest..

It wouldn’t it be HSBC by any chance? The bank of choice for Mexican drug cartels, the Russian mafia & various other dodgy outfits with readies to launder. The same HSBC that was left off from their dealings with the above with a mere slap on the wrist from the US banking regulators.

Kittycat – No, not HSBC – for anyone who might be in this situation & who’s receiving help with managing debt, they should hopefully get to find out about this upcoming change, as it would be better to change banks before ‘being pushed’ … It is new though & a recent change to something that wasn’t seen to be particularly a problem until now.

Serve them right when the landlord cannot pay the mortgage because the only people that have tried to rent their property are receiving housing benefit and the lender has a clause in there that says they cannot lend to those claiming any housing benefit.
I hope these lenders end up in the shit, and the landlords go to lenders who will allow those on benefits to rent.
IMHO the main thing is that the landlord is getting the money and paying their lender not who the landlord rents the property too it is none of the lenders fecking business.

Nationwide building society has reported a fall in half-year profits, partly due to bad commercial loans and money set aside for PPI compensation.
Profit before tax for the six months to the end of September was £124m, down from £238m a year earlier.
Nationwide set aside a further £45m to cover claims for payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling.
However, income rose to £1.2bn after strong mortgage lending and growth in the number of current accounts.

“We have continued to demonstrate our success,” said Nationwide chief executive Graham Beale.

The Mortgage Works, a subsidiary of Nationwide Building Society, has removed the exclusion of tenants on benefits and Local Authority tenants from its Buy-to-Let terms and conditions. This follows concerns raised by its customers.

The clarification of the terms and conditions, which took place last December, brought The Mortgage Works into line with several other Buy-to-Let lenders. This will now be removed.

Richard Napier, Divisional Director of Mortgages for the Nationwide Group said: “The Buy-to-Let sector is very important to us. We have listened to concerns that have been expressed by some of our customers, over the last few days, and believe this is the right way forward for The Mortgage Works, for landlords and for their tenants.”

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Nationwide Building Society Stanley Murdoch Mark Rowland Clare Jackman Jon Slack The Mortgage Works, a subsidiary of Nationwide Building Society, has removed the exclusion of tenants on benefits and Local Authority tenants from its Buy-to-Let terms and conditions. This follows concerns raised by its customers. http://www.facebook.com/NationwideBuildingSociety/posts/414301895328441

Nationwide Building Society Justice4Jobseekers Kim Dexter Marianne DeSantis Anne Selby Fiona Cochrane Rebecca Dale Matthew Naumann The Mortgage Works, a subsidiary of Nationwide Building Society, has removed the exclusion of tenants on benefits and Local Authority tenants from its Buy-to-Let terms and conditions. This follows concerns raised by its customers. http://www.facebook.com/NationwideBuildingSociety/posts/414301895328441

I’m not arguing against this, just thinking critically…
WHY do they not want to rent to DSS?
My Aunt owns a whole bunch of properties, and thinks its great renting to people on housing benefit- the government doesn’t pay rent late and is reliable.
On the other hand, I took a lodger into my home last year who was on housing benefit. I didnt ask for a deposit because he couldn’t afford it (like so many). After the first months benefit was finally paid to him by the council (I was very patient) he disappeared and never paid it to me. All his stuff was still at my house 3 months later. (I did finally make contact as i was worried, and he was fine and had spent the money) The council told me that they could pay the housing benefit to me instead, but only if my lodger hadn’t paid for a few months, by which time he wasn’t living at mine.
After this experience, I don’t think I would want to take on another lodger on housing benefit, so I can understand why landlords and lenders who have been stung would say no more. I’m not saying its right, and I also don’t have a solution.
There are far too many empty rooms and empty houses.

this is actually a fully legal, and for a change, an ethically correct stance …. buy to let is a mortgage based on income fromm tenants, where that income comes solely from benefit claimants, then housing benefit is being funneled into a property scam for the benefit of the landowner !
Think about it ! It’s mortage fraud !

I don’t really see it as a tax either to be honest, I see it as a reduction in benefits with lies to mask it’s true origin, the “Sustainable Development” UN Published Agenda 21. JV just calls these documents “conspiracy theories” but if it wasn’t actually published by the UN and been implimented by nations around the world using all the key policies with flowery names I would agree. It’s just a move they are rolling out across the most vulnerable first… just wait till it gets expanded to a “Under Occupancy Tax” or other flowery worded lie on the Council Tax or it’s replacement.

I would suspect we have some coalition boys and girls here blindly batting for them, sowing the seeds of confrontation and hatred… it will fail just like every aspect of this coalition. Just remember hold on tight in there and keep it real and do not be fooled by the enemy in our midst, they will get bored and return to sucking coalition dick in no time.

On the subject of “No DSS” by nationwide, they are going along with a trend that has been the case for years, it is an unacceptable persecution of one side of society at their most vulnerable, seeking to get their feet back on the ground, and yet you still get bigots visualising those on benefits as having anti-social behaviour issue’s, taking drugs, loads of kids and boozing all day and night, I dare say there are some, as there are good and bad in every walk of life, Letting agents and Landlords still have eye’s and logic to see who they should and should not rent out to without persecuting everyone.

If things like this continue to go from bad to worse we shall see society fall in a big way as anger explodes to truly show how many people are really unemployed or mentally or physically disabled, the actions of this coalition will never be conducive to sorting this problem out while they continue down the road of persecution propaganda… on the subject of “No DSS”, I wonder how the reaction would be if it said “No Black People”, there would be an utter uproar, words in the house and god know what else!. There is no difference except one is illegal Racial Discrimination whilst the other is politically acceptable discrimination to an unfortunate large group in society
who through a mixture of fascist party rule, circumstance or health they find themselves requiring some financial support for what the whole bloody purpose of the welfare state exists to provide.

Not politically correct but neither is this coalitions treatment of unemployed and mentally and physically disabled…If truth be the fact it’s no doubt what a good many people are thinking even if they don’t wish to admit it.

divide and conquer as usual, we all knew it was on the cards for ukip to go in coalition with the tories, because they are the more right wing of the tories. If this came about they would be freeing up houses allocated to blacks(providing they are not rich or influential blacks) to give to the white homeless they are creating and no doubt most will go along with it.
I would not want to be in private rented accommodation of any kind where you have short term insecure tenancies and they can keep the poor constantly on the move. Even the bloody housing associations are doing this to new tenants – we need a fair rents policy and long tenancy agreements whether in the private or public sector. I will be voting for the respect party and if more did the same it could scupper ukip.

Can someone please explain to me why people who own their houses have to pay bedroom tax?

I’m talking about people who have worked and payed off a mortgage (with interest) or if fortunate enough been able to pay for it in cash or been left it in a will – (Homeowners).

To my understanding of the law, once you have bought your own house and are the deed holder, you don’t have to pay ANYTHING ELSE FOR IT, other than the usual standard bills and standard house insurance.

I wonder if Queen Elizabeth the 2nd will be charged bedroom tax as she is only allowed to reside at Buckingham Palace as long as she lives (a temporary arrangement – at best)

Just think how many spare bedrooms there are at Buckingham Palace, please bear in mind that she recieves her money from the taxpayer just as everyone on benefit’s do, I wonder if Cameron, Osbourne or IDS has the balls to tell our soveriegn she has to stump up for £???????? – not on your nelly!

If you have bought and paid for your own house then you are not in receipt of housing benefit and that is what is being withdrawn for those that have more than one bedroom – therefore it is not possible for someone who owns their own house to pay bedroom tax because bedroom tax is a fictitious name for benefit withdrawal for,those with more than one bedroom and claiming housing benefit.

error: shiould read’ bedroom tax is withdrawn for those that have surplus bedrooms’, not as I stated ‘more than one bedroom. There is no link for bedroom tax for home owners because it does not apply to them.

John
Your link I could not agree with more with exception to praise for Frank Field who was trying to make a name for himself when condemning Blair.
I went to a labour party meeting which a member got me tickets for where frank field gave his speech on welfare reform before it was implemented, he was shouted down by grass root labour party members who were ejected from the hall – the man is a disgrace. So too were the poverty action group at the time who were also supporting welfare reform and were present at the meeting, so I gave them a mouthful, they had been formed as a pretentious activist group against poverty, yet were supporting it via welfare reform.

You kicked this off, the onus is on you sir – I’m sure you wouldn’t want to be regarded as part of the Conservative Party – because that’s exactly what they are doing right now – in other word’s Ill have to sort or find the link myself!

It is only when the tories are in power that they feel they have to do something so radical it will go down in history and I include the tory Blair in this who hijacked the labour party with the help of mandleson.
Thatcher the dismantling of the num, selling off council housing and the poll tax, cameron welfare reform and austerity, denying claimants legal aid and transgressing human rights.
There is a good book entitled ‘the politics of greed’ by Martin Loney about Thatchers reign.

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